布政司
下
2/4601/75
AMB OUR RIF.:CR
SCR 4/2091/72
* YOUR REF.:
669
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KO
Mr. Angelo Rasanayagam
Charge de Mission
Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
Loong San Building
140/2 Connaught Road, Central
HONG KONG
Bar hur kenangagan. Dear
HKK243/1
RECEIVED:
17M
DESK OFFICEY
INDEX
PA
At our meeting on 8th May, I told you that the Hong Kong Government was disappointed that your Headquarters had not yet told you how they proposed to deal with the problem of refugees from Vietnam who may have spent some time in China on their way to Hong Kong. However, I was encouraged by your confidence. that these outstanding cases would be resolved before the end of May. In these circumstances, we are, exceptionally, willing to relax temporarily the general rule which we prefer to follow i. e. that, as accommodation becomes available in camps for which UNHCR is responsible, refugees temporarily in Government accommodation should be transferred in order of their date of arrival in Hong Kong.
·
2. · We discussed at our meeting the need to return to the system which operated well up to November 1978 for the acceptance by UNHCR of responsibility for accommodating, maintaining and processing refugees from Vietnam arriving by boat in Hong Kong. Given the present number of refugees in Hong Kong and the arrangements which UNHCR has made to provide accommodation, it is difficult at present for your office to ensure that sufficient accommodation is available for refugees within a day or two of their arrival. (I hope that by July our combined plans for future refugee accommodation will make this possible). In the se circumstances and in the meantime, and as discussed with you sometime ago in relation to Kai Tak North camp, I hope you can agree that UNHCR should reimburse the Hong Kong Government for the maintenance costs of refugees in Government accommodation from the date of their arrival until their transfer to I should be grateful for your confirmation that this
UNHCR camps. should apply:-
a)
to all refugees allowed ashore to date and whose cases have not been kept aside for further investigation by UNHCR; and
./b)